So, now the Minnesota Canvassing Board has certified the senate vote results and Franken doesn't want to count any more absentee ballots and Coleman wants to fight it all in court?  But I thought Franken was all about ensuring that every vote was counted and Coleman was all about letting the healing begin and not wasting any more taxpayer money?  

From a story about the Franken recount:

"As the process moves forward, Minnesota authorities must ensure that no voter is disenfranchised," Reid said in a statement. "A citizen's right to have his or her vote counted is fundamental in our democracy."

Do you wish that politicians would stop pretending that it's their deeply ingrained desire for ( Read more... )

Would it be unfair of me to expect that the president of the United States would send his/her children to public school? What does it say about his/her perceptions of the quality of the public school system, commitments to making it better and to basic democratic principles of egalitarianism if s/he eschews it in favor of an elite private school ( Read more... )

So, now that all the ballots have been counted, it appears that Ted Stevens has lost Alaska.   Minnesota is going to a recount, with the candidates separated by 200 votes and Georgia is having a runoff.  I wouldn't bet on either of Minnesota or Georgia but it appears that 60 Senate seats for the Democrats remains a real possibility.

As some, including me, have noted, Obama's positions are relatively right wing, even, in some cases, to the right of Stephen Harper, Canada's Conservative leader.  And yet, despite my left wing inclinations, I admit that I prefer Obama to Harper.  Part of this is because right and left are relative positions.  I prefer the person who pushes to the ( Read more... )

Diane Feinstein intends to write a law forbidding people to sell tickets to Obama's inauguration ceremony. See, it's okay to buy your way into the presidency, you just can't buy your way in to watch the swearing-in ceremony. We have to draw the line somewhere.

Below are some of the exit poll data taken from CNN's 2008 polls and 2004 polls.
Voter ParameterMcCainObamaBushKerryPerc. 04Perc. 08Dem. Impr.Repr. IncreaseChange in R/D Diff White Men574162373636409 White Women5346554439412-24 White5543584174772-35 African American495118813117214 18-2932664554181712125 income under 15 K257336636810-221 200 K + ( Read more... )

Last night we went to an Obama celebration party thrown by some friends of ours.  It was a lot of fun, replays of acceptance speeches and SNL parodies, although at one point I found myself unpopularly defending Jesse Jackson (not for his inclinations to castrate Obama).  But I was struck by the fact that one of the couples who attend most every ( Read more... )

 You know, I dumped on Novak a few posts ago, but the more I think about it, the less convinced I am that he's wrong, i.e., I don't really have a strong sense that the country has taken a very hard turn to the left or given much the Democrats much of a mandate, as groundbreaking as this election is in some historical respects.

McCain lost, but he ( Read more... )

Last night I bought five copies of a special commemorative edition of the Washington Post that had been released yesterday afternoon.

It was, essentially, just Section A of yesterday's paper and they were charging three times the regular newstand price for it.  I also have the early morning delivered edition and the final edition of the morning ( Read more... )